William James Bill Murray is an American actor and comedian. Born on 21 September, 1950, in Chicago, he is the fifth child among nine siblings. Times were hard for the big family so Murray and his brother worked as caddies on a golf course to pay for their education. After graduating from high school, he attended the Regis University in Denver, but quit after he was found to possess marijuana at Chicago airport.
Murray is different from regular Hollywood actors. He has neither a publicist nor an agent nor a lawyer nor a business manager. Away from Hollywood, Murray reads script offers himself and sometimes forgets to check his voicemail!
Sofia Coppola wrote her award-winning film Lost in Translation (2003) specifically with Murray in mind for the role of Bob Harris. Sofia asked her famous father, Francis Ford Coppola, to help trace the elusive Murray and, when Murray read Sofia’s script, he agreed to star in the film.
Murray started out his career with noted actor Del Close as his mentor. He joined a comedy troupe that was close to his own dry sense of humour and gained good experience. He moved to New York in 1975 and began work at The National Lampoon Radio Hour. In the same year, he got his first TV role on ABC’s Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell. His film debut was in Meatballs (1979) and he had some decent hits in the 1980s such as Caddyshack, Stripes and Tootsie. Murray co-wrote The Razor’s Edge (1984) and gained financial backing after agreeing to star in Ghostbusters for Columbia Pictures. The Razor’s Edge was a big flop while Ghostbusters went on to be the biggest box-office hit of 1984.
Murray took the failure of The Razor’s Edge badly and went into hibernation for four years. He took up Philosophy and History at the Sorbonne and spent time with his family. In 1988, he returned to Hollywood with Scrooged and Ghostbusters II. His other releases, What About Bob (1991) and Groundhog Day (1993), went on to become big hits. His other memorable films include Rushmore (1998), Wild Things (1998), Cradle Will Rock (1999), Space Jam (1996), Hamlet (1996), The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), Charlie’s Angels (2000), Garfield: The Movie (2004) and Lost in Translation. He won a Golden Globe and a BAFTA for Lost in Translation as well as an Academy Award nomination.
Murray loves golf and regularly plays celebrity tournaments. He also owns a restaurant chain with his brothers and partly owns few minor league baseball teams. He has two sons with his first wife and four sons with his second wife, Jennifer Butler. He is quoted as saying, “One of the things I like about acting is that, in a funny way, I come back to myself.”
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